The present invention relates to a video camera combined with a recording and reproducing system such as a video camera combined with a VTR (video tape recorder) or an electronic still camera. More specifically, the invention relates to a compact and portable video camera combined with a recording and reproducing system using, for example, a compact magnetic tape cassette or a magnetic disk.
It is desirable that a portable video camera combined with a recording and reproducing system be compact, light in weight, and operable. Various proposals have been made for such improvements. In Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 63-152364 relating to a video camera combined with VTR, for example, a proposal that a grip unit having a camera unit is partially protruded on one side of a main body using a VHS compact cassette A; and viewfinder unit and a battery unit are installed in parallel with each other behind the main body.
It is desirable that a compact and portable video camera combined with a recording and reproducing system can be operated easily for imaging and stored, for example, in a case and carried easily for movement. Particularly, it is desirable that the video camera be as small and compact as possible for movement.
To miniaturize a video camera combined with a VTR, for example, it is necessary of course to miniaturize each of the main structures constituting the entire video camera such as a recording and reproducing deck unit which contains rotary heads and a drive motor and has a cassette tape storage chamber, a camera unit having a lens block comprising a plurality of lenses and an imaging unit, a viewfinder unit, and a battery unit. However, it is also necessary to contrive a means for arranging each structure.
On the basis of these points of view, in the above conventional example, the battery unit and the viewfinder unit are arranged in parallel with each other behind the main body for miniaturization in consideration of the arrangement of the viewfinder unit and the battery unit. In this example, however, the entire arrangement including the recording and reproducing deck unit and the camera unit is not taken into account. As a result, although the status behind the main body is partially neat, the entire arrangement is not good because the grip unit is partially protruded on one side of the main body and the design and storing capability are questionable. Furthermore, since the viewfinder unit and the battery unit are arranged behind the main body, the longitudinal length is excessive.
An object of the present invention is to provide a video camera combined with a recording and reproducing system which has a shape that can be made as small and compact as possible for movement or storage, that is, an almost even and compact shape (for example, the cassette size or disk size) including the recording and reproducing deck unit, camera unit, viewfinder unit, and battery unit which is as close to the size of a minimum capacity unit of recording medium (for example, a tape cassette or magnetic disk) as possible and which can be handled and operated easily for imaging.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a video camera combined with a recording and reproducing system which can be handled and operated easily for imaging and which has an almost even and compact shape (for example, the cassette size or disk size) which is as close to the size of a minimum capacity unit of recording medium (for example, a tape cassette or magnetic disk) as possible during no-imaging.